


All's Fair in Love and War

by EchoResonance



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Kanda is a big whiny pissbaby, Multi, also water is wet, ot4 week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-20 14:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4791419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoResonance/pseuds/EchoResonance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one is really sure how it happened, but Allen, Kanda, Lavi, and Lenalee have found themselves working at a fair that's in town for the weekend.<br/>(dgmot4week work; each chapter corresponds to a prompt)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day One: Light|Dark  
> Translating to: Day|Night

“Who convinced Lenalee that _that_ would be a good idea?” Allen said quietly, looking across the path from where he and Lavi were entertaining a small group of children.

Lenalee was sitting, looking lovely as ever and quite bored, at a well-painted booth with a sign that read “ _Kissing Booth: $5 a Smooch_ ” in graceful black script. Despite how nice both she and the booth looked, there was a conspicuous lack of people at it, something that the boys had been swift to notice.

“Well I’m not exactly complaining,” Lavi reasoned, pausing in the act of drawing a fish design in henna ink on the back of a girl’s hand to look over. “I don’t know what I’d do if a bunch of strangers were kissing our Lenalee.”

“Yeah, there is that,” Allen said, lips curving slightly. “But...How would anybody expect that to be successful?”

Lavi followed Allen’s gaze to a spot a few paces behind the booth, and felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. A young man was standing there creepily, a very scary smile on his face that made him reminiscent of a Batman villain as he watched every passerby that so much as glanced at the booth. It was hard to identify the object he was fiddling with in his hands, but it reminded Lavi vaguely of something between a medieval torture device and something you’d see in a dentist’s office. He went back to his paint.

“She has a habit of underestimating her brother,” Lavi said with a shrug. “You know that.”

Allen snorted and went back to making balloon animals for a couple of impatient eight-year-olds.

“No kidding,” he agreed. “At least Komui’s not scaring the kids away yet, or we’d all come out of this as broke as we came in.”

It was only the first day of the fair, but it was packed full of people, kids in particular who just _had_ to get their faces painted and had to watch the clown do his magic tricks. Allen still didn’t remember how exactly he’d ended up working at the fair this weekend, or how the rest of them had ended up there, but he didn’t mind. They were making some extra money, and he got to put smiles on countless childrens’ faces while Lavi--for the most part--painted tasteful art on their cheeks and foreheads. On occasion somebody that Lavi knew would come by and ask him to paint their face, and he obliged...sort of. That is to say, he did paint their faces, though one had to wonder if he’d actually heard what they had asked for.

“I’m surprised they haven’t kicked you out of here yet,” Allen said, spying one of Lavi’s earlier victims as they walked by, face red from scrubbing off the travesty that Lavi had marked it up with. Deisya scowled at them and kicked a rock in their direction, but Allen caught it easily and dropped it back to the ground.

“The alternative is calling back Yuu,” Lavi pointed out. “And that would be counterproductive.”

Allen snorted derisively and handed the last little boy, Timothy, his balloon dragon. The boy cheered happily and ran off, leaving his rather severe-looking mother to give Allen a five dollar bill for entertaining her son for a few minutes--he was only asking for donations, but wasn’t actually charging.

“Kanda isn’t exactly the face of human relations, is he?” Allen chuckled, sitting back on his chair in a--probably brief--moment of peace. He’d get back up and juggle for a bit after he rested his feet.

“Nah, I’d say making kids cry before you even say anything to them is not the best trait in customer service,” Lavi laughed, pulling back from his kid and admiring his work. It wasn’t bad; he’d drawn a dolphin on a young boy’s face, the creature curving around his eye so that the tail was on his cheekbone and its nose was above his eyebrow.

Kanda probably could have done better, what with growing up with his incredibly artistic adoptive father, but something about what Allen liked to call his resting bitch face seemed to unsettle the kids. Allen knew _he_ wouldn’t want to have a stranger scowling like that anywhere near his face, and honestly there were times when he was still iffy on how close he was willing to let Kanda get, even though he knew him very well now. At any rate, Kanda’s expression wasn’t exactly great for business in the face painting field, so the people in charge had politely reassigned him and grabbed Lavi from where he’d been hanging out in the photography showcase.

“Thank god we don’t have to do this tonight,” Lavi sighed, leaning back after the boy’s father had paid him and taken off, giving him a short reprieve. “My hand’s cramping up big time.”

“At least you don’t have to wear a bunch of clown makeup and this wig,” Allen sighed. “Not to mention these clothes are _heavy_ , and it’s way too hot for them.”

Lavi laughed at that.

“Well, we’re almost done for the day,” he said, checking his watch. “Half an hour and we can switch off.”

Allen smiled wistfully at the prospect of getting out of his sweaty clown costume, glancing over at Lenalee’s booth again. Some poor guy about their age was hovering nearby, casting it considering looks. From his spot as watchdog, Komui’s glasses flashed evilly in the sunlight, and Allen shuddered.

 _Run if you know what’s good for you,_ he coaxed the boy. At about the same time, the stranger looked around, and it was obvious when he saw Lenalee’s older brother because he went stiff as a board, then seemed to just dissolve into the late afternoon air like dust.

“How long do you think it’ll take before she catches on?” Lavi wondered, watching the same scene with obvious amusement.

Allen shrugged. “If she hasn’t already, she probably won’t realize until Komui actually physically assaults somebody.”

“Pity the fool,” Lavi said quietly, lips still curled.

They sat in silence for a while, watching as all sorts of people milled around, some enjoying themselves far more than others and some simply far more drunk than others. A group of girls giggled on their way by, sending Allen and Lavi would-be-flirty glances as they stumbled over their high heels and tried to keep their skirts from being blown up by the wind. Allen gave them a small smile in return, privately thinking that, while it should be up to any individual what they wear and to hell with everyone else, some amount of common sense should have hit those girls on the way out the door that a town fair was probably not the place to wear stilettos. It was all fun and games until they pretended to walk down the red carpet and instead found themselves treading in a pile of horse dung, or they simply turned an ankle climbing the stairs or walking in the gravel.

He shrugged and glanced at Lavi, only to find him looking after the girls with marginally more interest. He flicked a small rock at the redhead.

“You’ll catch flies if you leave your mouth hanging open like that,” Allen said humorously.

Lavi grinned and didn’t reply.

“Looks like we’re through for the day,” Allen noted, glancing at his watch and at their lack of customers. “Time for the switch, huh?”

Lavi clapped his paint-covered hands together in anticipation. “Let’s do this. I’ve always wanted to see how crazy a prediction has to be before people call bullshit on it.”

Allen smirked, and together they packed up their supplies and headed to a changing room. Lenalee watched them go, a little peeved that they’d gotten such good business, but sighed and leaned her elbows on her own stall. Maybe people in this town just weren’t into the whole “kiss-a-total-stranger” thing.

* * *

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Kanda had--probably unwisely--stopped on his way out of the fair to gape at a particularly...ostentatious stand. More accurately, he’d stopped to stare incredulously at the people working the stand. Sitting in a tent-like stall outside of which sat a black sign reading “ _What Does Your Future Hold?_ ” in purple cursive lettering was a redhead, wearing an eyepatch and draped in shawls to the point where he himself looked like a small tent, and a silver-haired young man with a prominent red scar on the left side of his face wearing a long and shabby black coat.

Lavi was sitting in front of a small table on top of which sat a large crystal ball on an overstuffed pillow, while Allen was sitting at the table next to him with a deck of tarot cards sitting by his left hand. They both greeted Kanda with a smirk and invited him very sarcastically to get his own fortune told.

“They’re actually paying you for this bullshit?” he said in disbelief, eyeing the cash box that was only partially obscured under Allen’s chair. “And I thought there was a limit to how many suckers infested this place. Stupid me.”

“Don’t be such a spoilsport, Yuu,” Lavi wheedled. “This stuff is fun. Come on, give it a tr--”

“Quit calling me that!” Kanda snapped, bristling at once.

Lavi raised his hands in mock surrender, then looked past Kanda to grin and gesture somebody over. Kanda stepped to the side, not so much to be polite but because he knew that if he didn’t he would hardly deter most of the crowd; they’d just barrel right through him without so much as an “excuse me.” Two girls sat down across from Lavi, smiling curiously, and Kanda rolled his eyes.

“C’mon Kanda, lighten up,” Allen coaxed. “Fairs are supposed to be _fun_.”

“Maybe if you were raised by a clown,” the taller man snorted derisively.

Allen’s eye twitched, but he refrained from taking Kanda’s bait. He didn’t really want to start anything, even at night, at the stand where they were trying to get customers.

“What did you do to that scar on your face?” Kanda wondered, pointing. “Did you seriously color it to make it stand out for this?”

Allen raised his hand to his left eye, then chuckled.

“It was Lavi’s idea,” he shrugged. “He said it made me look more ‘mysterious,’ whatever that means. He had the face paint and I didn’t see any reason not to.”

“Other than you look even more stupid than usual?”

Allen’s smile grew icy.

“There’s a hall of mirrors farther down if you want to see what true stupid looks like, BaKanda,” he said in a sickly sweet voice. Kanda’s eyebrow twitched, but before he could retort, a young man shouldered past him to sit across from Allen.

“How much for a tarot reading?” he wondered, as if he hadn’t just shoved Kanda into the side of the tent. The raven-haired man started towards the punk, but Allen shot him a look and he grumpily refrained from teaching the kid a lesson.

“A past, present, and future reading is ten dollars,” said Allen, his voice adopting a much lower, softer tone. Kanda raised an eyebrow. Always one for theatrics. “If there’s something specific you want to know, a question reading is seven.”

“Do--do I have to tell you the question?” the boy said uncomfortably. Allen smiled and shook his head.

“No. You just have to focus on your question when you draw a card. If you want to tell me, I could give a more specific interpretation of the card, but as long as you focus on the question, your card should lead you to the right answer.”

“Alright,” said the customer, his shoulders loosening slightly. “I’ll do that then, please.”

Allen smiled and, ignoring Kanda’s piercing gaze, pulled a section from the center of the deck without even looking, shuffled the cards expertly in his hands, and spread them out perfectly along the length of the table with his left hand. Kanda wondered at this, knowing that he was right handed, and then figured that he was probably using his discolored arm to its greatest effect. He rolled his eyes.

“Now, focus hard on your question, and run your hands over the cards,” Allen instructed. “You’ll feel which card is yours.”

“I’ll... _feel_ it?” the boy echoed. Allen nodded encouragingly.

The boy took a deep breath and stuck his hand out a few inches over the cards, moving it back and forth slowly. Twice he hesitated on the same card, and the third time he made to pass over it, he instead pulled it out of the line. Smiling, Allen swept the rest of the cards into a perfect stack, and then flipped over the chosen card. Leaning over the boy’s shoulder, Kanda observed the chosen card. It depicted a person in what seemed to be a mist-filled forest, standing at the edge of a ravine. The person was barefoot and wearing tattered clothing that strongly resembled animal pelts, and their straw-colored hair was messily cut, with one braid hanging weirdly on one side. The view of the person was from behind, and the reader of the card seemed to be watching as the person stepped out over the ravine, their right foot moving toward a thin rainbow that went halfway across and then faded.

Kanda frowned. Was the rainbow supposed to be some kind of bridge? What kind of symbolism was that? And why did it end halfway across?

“What is it?” the boy asked Allen.

“You’ve drawn The Wanderer,” Allen told him. “The Wanderer, in its simplest manifestation, signifies a great change, and appears to help set aside old burdens and start new journeys. You’ve recently finished a great task, and it’s time for you to move on to a new adventure, but you don’t know yet which way to go. Is that right?”

“I...yeah...Yeah, you could say that,” the boy said shyly.

Kanda pressed his lips together and moved away before he could spew his normal cynicism. That was a pretty generic statement. It could apply to anybody, and if you ask them about it, they’ll obviously fill that “great task they’ve just finished” slot with their most recent accomplishment.

“You’re at a junction, wavering on which path you want to take,” Allen continued. “One path seems easier than the others, but it also seems...rather ordinary, doesn’t it? Another path seems absolutely impossible, but at the end of it, you think you might see endless possibilities. There are others as well, of course, but these are the two paths you waver between.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” the boy said, a hint of eagerness creeping into his voice. Kanda rolled his eyes and glanced at Lavi. Was the boy even pretending to crystal gaze, or was he just straight-up flirting?

“Look at the card again, Leo,” Allen said.

The boy did without question, but Kanda looked back over at Allen in surprise, wondering how he had figured out the kid’s name. He’d never shared it.

“Look carefully. Where is The Wanderer going?”

“Well…” Leo said uncertainly. “It looks...it looks like it’s...trying to walk on the rainbow.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Allen said softly. “An impossible enough idea, isn’t it? But The Wanderer seems confident. It isn’t hesitating, see? It's already taking the first step down that path.”

“But the path ends before it goes all the way across,” the boy noted. “Doesn’t that mean it can’t get to the end?”

Allen smiled. “The end of the path is rarely one you get the privilege of seeing from the start. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it stops where your vision does. You have to have faith in whatever path you choose, because you’ll probably never see the end until you reach it, but if you lose hope because of that you’ll end up walking in circles.”

“Right…”

Allen reached out and picked up the card, gazing at it for a long moment.

“You’ll have to gather your resolve and set aside burdens from your past before you can choose any of the paths in front of you, Leo,” Allen said. “But once you do that, your steps with be sure and true. Does that make sense?”

 _That was as generic as a fortune cookie, beansprout_ , Kanda thought. Of course it made sense! It was the kind of vague answer that could apply to anyone and anything!

However, Leo didn’t seem to have Kanda’s skepticism, nodding enthusiastically.

“Yeah!” he said. “I get it now! Thank you!”

He dug around in his pockets and pulled out a wad of one dollar bills. He separated seven from the mess and gave them to Allen, who accepted them quietly and wished Leo the best of luck before he ran off, skipping cheerfully.

“People actually buy into your bogus?” Kanda snorted, watching as Allen shuffled The Wanderer back into his deck and put the money in his cash box. “That’s not predicting the future, that’s just being vague as hell. I can do that.”

Allen shook his head.

“Tarot isn’t about predicting the future, Kanda,” Allen said. “It’s about opening people’s eyes to what they need to do. It’s not _fake_ , it’s just leading people to shape their own destinies, kinda by tricking them into thinking they’re predestined; basically it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy scenario. Usually when most people come to get a tarot reading, they have a question or problem that they want help with, and sometimes those people just want to believe that their help is coming from some mystic, magic place.”

“That might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Believing in some magical powers that be to answer all your problems?” Kanda sneered. “Nothing you even said was any kind of _answer_.”

“Most of the time, they already know what the need to do deep down, but they have trouble officially making that decision,” Allen sighed. “By going to a ‘fortune teller’ that tells them admittedly vague things, they can apply whatever the reader says to their own situation, and they do it in the way that suits them best. It’s just helping people answer their own questions, Kanda.”

“Tch, whatever,” he grumbled. “I’m going home. Try not to emulate a herd of elephants stampeding through the house when you get back.”

“You’re already done for the day?” Allen said, startled. Kanda nodded.

“They stuck me manning the stupid boat ride,” he growled. “The Pharaoh’s Fury or something. But my shift’s over, so I’m out of here.”

“Uh…” Allen said hesitantly. Kanda narrowed his eyes at his roommate’s tone. “You did...wait for the next person, right? You didn’t just leave the ride running?”

Kanda blinked, then frowned. Had he shut the ride down properly? He remembered flipping some switches, but what exactly did they do again?

Eh, it wasn’t his problem anymore, and those kids had been brats anyway.

He left without answering Allen.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dgmot4 week prompt 2  
> Confessions|Secrets

“Lenalee!” Lavi hollered across the pathway. The girl looked up from her bored daydreaming, the product of another unsuccessful run at her kissing booth.

“What is it?” she wondered.

“We should check out the craft fair stuff when we get a break!” he said. “I heard there are some really great flower arrangements this year, and a couple people have been raving about some incredibly photography entries. Apparently they look unreal.”

“Yeah, that sounds like fun!” Lenalee said with a smile, cheering up a little at the prospect. She looked over at Allen, who was in the middle of a long overdue break from juggling and card tricks. “Do you want to come with us too, Allen?”

The boy looked around at his name, clearly startled.

“Come where?” he mumbled. Lenalee suppressed a laugh.

“You really shouldn’t sleep on the job, Allen,” she said. It was hard to tell through the makeup, but Lenalee was willing to bet he blushed a little. “I was asking if you want to go to the craft fair with Lavi and I on our break?”

“Oh,” he responded, scratching the back of his neck. “N-no, I’m not really in the mood. I’ll probably just get something to eat from one of the food stalls. You guys have fun, though.”

“Aw, come on Allen!” Lavi pouted, pausing in the middle of painting a bright pink dragon on a young boy’s cheek to make a face. “You gotta come! I think Yuu even submitted something, so you _have_ to!”

Allen blinked in surprise.

“Kanda?” he said uncertainly. Lavi nodded. “Where did you hear that? There’s no way that guy would willingly put in the time for something like that!”

Lavi shrugged nonchalantly and went back to his customer’s dragon.

“Who knows?” he said. “Maybe he turned over a new leaf and decided to really get involved in extracurriculars for a change.”

There was a brief, brief moment of silence between the three. Then they burst into raucous laughter. Lavi’s hand, in his mirth, slipped and left a long red streak going all the way to the kid’s ear. When their laughter subsided and Lavi observed his mistake, he sighed and continued speaking while turning that long red streak into the dragon’s tail.

“Okay, so I might have made a submission under his name without asking,” he admitted. “ _But_ it was all his work, he just didn’t want to enter it.”

“Lavi,” said Allen with deadly solemnity. “It was nice knowing you. With that admission, I am not going anywhere near the craft fair. I don’t want to be in arm’s reach when he finds out what you did.”

“Oh come on!” Lavi whined, leaning back to admire his handiwork. Very nice. “It was too good not to enter! So what if I did it for him? The dude’s got a green thumb and an eye for flower arranging, there’s no way he’ll come out of there with anything less than a blue ribbon.”

“How did you even get him to make an arrangement with you around?” Lenalee wondered. “It’s no secret he loves gardening, but to actually _make_ an arrangement and let you see it?”

“I’d ask how much you paid him, but no amount of money would ever persuade _him_ ,” Allen said. “Did you manage to sneak around without him noticing you?”

Lavi shrugged, waving the little boy goodbye cheerfully, a five dollar bill in his hand.

“Who cares?” he said. “I got it in, and that’s all that matters. You have to see it Allen, it really is amazing.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Allen said with a small smile. Lavi wasn’t wrong; Kanda had quite the green thumb, and he definitely had an eye for beauty, considering his lack of interest in the social construct. “But I’m really just not in the mood. Besides, didn’t he get stuck working in one of the craft buildings after the disaster last night?”

The three took a moment to remember the fiasco that was Kanda leaving at his designated time without waiting for his replacement, _and_ without shutting the ride down. Collectively they shuddered.

“So,” Allen said, recovering. “Unless you know for a fact that he’s not in the building you’re planning to check out, I want nothing to do with your under the table entry. He will kill me to get to you and you know it. Lenalee might save you, but I don’t wanna risk my life.”

Lavi pouted.

“Well fine then,” he said grumpily, beginning to rinse his brushes. “Did you enter anything?”

Allen snorted and rose to his feet, stretching his arms high over his head.

“What would I enter?” he wondered. “I can’t draw if my life depended on it, I’m not much for sewing or knitting or anything, and I definitely don’t have a knack for flowers, so…”

“But you can cook,” Lenalee pointed out. “They have a baking contest too, you know.”

Allen’s eye twitched.

“That’s such a waste of food,” he whined. “So much of it goes bad, and the judges don’t even finish what they taste; it just goes in the trash! I could never add to that horror.”

Lavi and Lenalee both gave a laugh that was more reminiscent of a sigh.

“Too bad they can’t do a music contest, huh?” Lavi said heavily. “You’d annihilate then.”

Lenalee nodded fervently. Allen grinned, abashed, and shrugged.

“But they don’t,” he said. “And with my lack of presentable talent, that leaves me with nothing to enter in any category.”

Lavi sighed, then looked over at the kissing booth.

“You wanna take off, Lenalee?” he asked. “Neither of us have got anything going on right now, and since Mr Killjoy over here doesn’t feel like it, we’re free to go whenever.”

Lenalee smiled and nodded, rising from her chair and placing a sign on the booth saying “ _Out to Lunch_.” Allen saw them off with a weary wave, and then sat back down heavily in his chair. He could probably change out of the outfit, honestly… It was close enough to shift change, and there weren’t many kids out today anyway.

He glanced after Lavi and Lenalee. Yeah, there were a few reasons he didn’t really feel like going to the craft fair, but the number one reason was one he hadn’t given. He had actually entered on of the contests, albeit under a pseudonym, but he felt uneasy at putting himself in a situation that might force him to lie to his friends by pretending he didn’t know who it was.

Groaning, Allen rose to his feet again and began gathering his props into the small duffel bag that he had tucked behind his chair, anticipating the freedom of wearing jeans and a normal shirt, and wearing shoes that actually fit him properly. He hoisted the bag over his shoulder and began making his way to the bathroom, where he would spend the next twenty minutes trying to scrub all the paint off his face.

* * *

Kanda watched Allen wash his face with shrewd eyes, arms crossed. He was hiding in the bathroom from an irritating group of girls that had been following him around the entire building, laughing loudly and flirting obnoxiously with him whenever he stood still for too long. It would be just his luck that in ducking into the bathroom to avoid one annoyance, he came upon another, but at least he didn’t mind Allen so much. Certainly his company was preferable to a group of thirsting strangers.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Allen wondered as he scrubbed his face with a paper towel. Kanda thought it seemed likely that he would scrub off a few layers of skin as well as that paint, but he said nothing of it.

“Working what, exactly?” he said grumpily. “They just stuck me in here and told me to keep people from causing too much trouble.”

Allen paused, snorting in amusement, to make eye contact with Kanda in the mirror.

“They told _you_ to keep everyone _else_ from causing trouble?” he chuckled. Kanda narrowed his eyes.

“What of it?” he growled. Allen shrugged.

“Just, if anybody was gonna cause trouble and start wrecking stands or attempting to murder bystanders, you’d be at the top of my suspect list,” he said matter-of-factly. He went back to cleaning off his face, focusing on a spot of bright blue right below his eye that seemed to be almost as obstinate as its wearer.

Kanda might have retorted, but his companion wasn’t exactly wrong. This was already the last place he wanted to be, and he still wasn’t sure how he’d been roped into working the fair in the first place, so if ever there was a loose canon of violence in human form, it would be him. The guy that didn’t like people, crowds, excessive noise, large amounts of stupidity, people, and lingering smells of alcohol, puke, and marijuana. Yeah, if anybody was gonna be causing trouble during the daylight hours, Kanda was not only the most likely suspect but quite probably the only one. When the sun went down and people starting _really_ getting high and/or drunk, then the tables didn’t favor him quite so much, but the buildings closed down before dark anyway.

“Where’s Lenalee and the stupid rabbit?” Kanda asked. “I would’ve thought for sure you guys would come looking to bother me together.”

Allen hesitated again, keeping his eyes on his own reflection this time.

“Ah, they went to look at some of the exhibits,” he said in a would-be nonchalant tone if not for the way his voice lifted at the end of the sentence. “The, uh, photography, I think?”

Kanda frowned. “The photography is in this building. There’s no way I would’ve missed _those_ two.”

Allen groaned internally.

“Beansprout, what are you trying to hide from me?” Kanda said, advancing.

“Ah, n-nothing, nothing at all!” Allen said hastily, whipping around to hold his hands up in front of him. “I was just--just wondering where they might be if they aren’t here!”

Kanda raised an eyebrow at him and he hastily made to change the subject.

“So, uh, have you actually looked at any of the submissions?” Allen wondered, dabbing at that spot below his eye that was quite adamant about staying that garish turquoise color.

Kanda glanced at the door.

“I wouldn’t say I looked at them,” he said noncommittally. “Sure I saw them. Hard not to.”

“Nothing catch your eye, then?”

Was that...disappointment? Kanda’s suspicion deepened even as he thought. Had there been anything that really stood out? Well...there were a few he remembered, if for no other reason than they were weird as hell and bordering on creepy.

“I guess there were a couple…” he said slowly, noticing Allen perk up ever so slightly. “Why? You know someone that submitted?”

“Uh--yeah, actually,” Allen said, possibly a little too quickly. “Do you mind showing me once I get the rest of this off?”

Kanda scowled, but shrugged in a silent acquiesce. Maybe if Allen was with him those girls would leave him alone. Assuming they were still hanging around.

Allen continued to wipe in vain at several lingering spots on his face, and he hadn’t seemed to even notice that he’d managed to get some red paint in his hair. With a sigh that threatened to blow down the entire building, Kanda stepped up and relieved Allen of the paper towel, figuring that if he allowed him to continue on his own they would be there all weekend. Allen didn’t protest when Kanda got a new wad of paper towels and wet them under the faucet, watching him curiously as he began to remove the remaining paint with perhaps a little too much force. With one hand he held Allen’s jaw in a grip like steel, his callouses obvious against his chin, while with the other he assaulted the spots of paint that were left, definitely taking out a few layers of skin with it. A few times he could tell that Allen tried to hide a wince, but there was really nothing for it; if he was any gentler that paint was not coming off, and he didn’t really do “gentle” in any case.

Soon enough he managed to leave Allen’s face bright red from friction and paint-free, and he shifted his attention to the spot of red in his hair, quickly taking it out of the otherwise soft strands. Satisfied that Allen looked possibly cold but no longer clown-like, he stepped back and threw his paper towels into the garbage. Allen smiled cheerfully and hoisted the bag at his feet onto his shoulder and gestured for Kanda to lead the way. He did, ducking out of the bathroom and casting a surreptitious look around to find that the group of girls he was avoiding were more persistent than he would have believed. They looked up when he came out, seeming to completely miss the look of death he sent them, but when Allen followed, instead of being put off, they seemed to get even more excited, pushing each other and giggling and pointing. Kanda groaned inwardly, but it didn’t look like the girls planned to approach him now that another person was with him, even though they clearly found the newcomer just as attractive.

“Friends of yours?” Allen teased quietly, noticing his gaze. Kanda scowled at him and turned on his heel, marching in the direction opposite the girls with Allen in his wake.

They walked past sections of themed photographs and drawings, some incredibly skilled and some...well, anybody was allowed to submit. Kanda was content to leave it at that. He stopped on opposite side of the building, by the freeform section, which had no theme to follow and yet almost every photo looked like every other photo. Birds and flower close-ups and “edgy” pictures of rusted bike wheels and old buildings. Amidst all that, it was easy to find the one that had stood out to Kanda, and to every other person that paused at this section.

Kanda never would have expected somebody to submit a picture of a cemetery to something like this, but he figured there was something to be said in and of that itself. It definitely stood out for its content, so at first glance it was bound to be the one to catch your attention, but the photographer hadn’t been lazy enough to rely solely on shock factor. The scene was absolutely haunting, in a color palette that, rather than being simply black and white, was muted almost but not entirely to grayscale. That was to say, there was _just enough_ color present to throw off your eyes and confuse you.

The photo was taken at night, but at just the right angle to work with the moonlight coming from a silver sliver on a black velvet sky, so that the tomb stones cast long shadows instead of being reduced to silhouettes. The few trees in the frame were at the far end of the cemetery, probably on the other side of a wrought-iron fence that was too blurry to distinguish, and they were bursting with leaves, several of which had fallen and been caught in a breeze to seemingly hover in the picture. Yeah, it was definitely a skillfully taken photo, and a definite deviant from the many, _many_ pictures of people’s pets and close-ups of plants and deer. The judges clearly thought it was something special, as evidenced by the blue ribbon stuck to the name tag.

Glancing next to him, Kanda noted curiously that Allen was wearing a look not of surprise or appreciation, but one of what he could only call pride. He looked back at the photo.

“Interesting pen name,” he said blandly. “Who would initial their first and middle names when their last name is as common as Campbell?”

Allen yelped like he’d just been electrocuted, but attempted to play it off in the obvious hope that Kanda hadn’t noticed.

“M-maybe they didn’t want anyone to know it was them?” he suggested, voice thin.

“Why that though?” Kanda wondered, making no attempt at pretenses. Let the sprout sweat. “You just pick something random?”

Beside him Allen deflated spectacularly and his own lips twitched slightly in amusement. If ever there a beansprout as transparent as his, then he’d eat his katana.

“It’s, ah….I dunno…” Allen mumbled awkwardly. “It’s a sort of fake persona I made up with Mana. I don’t use it very much, just for stuff like this. The N stands for Neah.”

“What for?” Kanda wondered, looking back at the photo. He was hardly shocked that it had been Allen who had taken the picture, or that it had been Allen to edit and filter it so perfectly. “You that scared that people won’t like it?”

“No, that’s not it,” he replied. “I just...I don’t know, I like seeing the reaction when people have no idea where something came from. If they don’t know the person that did something they see, they’re more sincere with their responses.”

Kanda blinked.

“You’re sure full of philosophy today,” he noticed drily. Then a thought struck him. “Lavi and Lenalee don’t know, do they?”

Allen shook his head. It was clear from his expression that he’d prefer it to stay that way, but he also wasn’t going to put up a fight if Kanda decided to tell them.

“Well, it’s not like it really matters,” he said gruffly. “As long as they like it and no one else is pretending it’s theirs, what difference does it make if it’s your name or some stupid pseudonym?”

Allen gave a relieved smile that Kanda pretended not to see.

“Well, Neah D. Campbell,” Kanda snorted. “Should we find the other two before they burn down half the town?”

“Lavi’s with Lenalee,” Allen pointed out. “She’ll keep him in check. We’re more at risk for that, don’t kid yourself.”

“Tch.”

“Oh,” Allen said suddenly. “I think they went to look at the crafts exhibits if you want to find them, though. The flower arranging and stuff.”

“Losers,” Kanda said dismissively even as he made his way to the exit.

Allen trailed along behind him, wondering if he should text Lavi and warn him that Kanda was about to find out about the stunt he had pulled. He decided against it. Let the redhead be in peace for a few more minutes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dgmot4week prompt 3  
> Permission|Pain

“Ah, c’mon, _please_?” Lavi whined, drawing out the ‘e’ like a toddler wanting a cookie.

Allen and Lenalee pretended to be deaf while he continued to bother their boss, hoping against hope that the man wouldn’t be fool enough to put Lavi in charge of the _Test Your Strength Challenge!_ The last thing anybody needed was their hyperactive redhead with a large hammer. He’d probably break the contraption on the first demonstration, but they couldn’t say that for risk of Lavi giving them his betrayed, kicked-puppy look.

Kanda wasn’t pretending any sort of inability to hear; he just wasn’t listening at all because he didn’t care. He was still in a sour mood from being told to switch positions again after “inappropriate conduct.” Apparently his superiors did not look kindly on him yelling, loudly and with creative vulgarity, at a group of young girls after they’d followed him around for two and a half hours in the morning. What a joke. Hopefully they’d just stick him somewhere that he wouldn’t have to pretend to be nice to people for the afternoon.

With a sigh of defeat that made Lenalee and Allen sag in silent apprehension, the manager told Lavi that he could man the challenge for the afternoon, but to close it up once it was dark. It was enough of a danger in broad daylight, and with Lavi in charge, nobody wanted to take extra risks. He grinned from ear to ear and, grabbing a currently free Allen by the elbow, all but sprinted off in the direction of the stand.

“That is going to be one hell of a disaster,” Kanda commented in a bored voice. Lenalee looked around at him.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” she said, though her tone said she wasn’t sure at all. “I mean, they let kids do it all the time, so it shouldn’t be too dangerous, right? Even if he gets excited, isn’t the machine rigged to control the impact?”

Kanda snorted.

“The machine hasn’t dealt with that stupid rabbit before,” he pointed out.

Before Lenalee could respond, the manager had moved in front of Kanda, cutting off their conversation visually.

“Alright, Kanda, now I know this one would definitely not be your first choice,” he started off anxiously. Kanda narrowed his eyes. “But the, uh... _dunking_ challenge’s volunteer called in sick, and they need someone to, well...get dunked, I guess?”

Kanda’s lip curled.

“If you think I’m gonna get dumped into that nasty water--” he began.

“No, no! It’s rigged,” the man explained hastily. “The board has so much give that it’s almost impossible to trigger the button. The amount of strength it’d need is pretty extraordinary.”

Kanda’s glower didn’t falter, and the manager’s face began to fall.

“Kanda,” Lenalee cut in, poking her face around the manager. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. They know what they’re doing here, you know. Fairs are always rigged against the players!”

“Tch. Cheaters and liars,” he said in disgust. “Remind me again why I’m here?”

“Because you need the money,” said the man in front of him, his voice hardening a bit. “Now will you go gracefully or should I just get someone else and not worry about your paycheck for the weekend?”

Scowling something spectacular, Kanda rose to his feet and gestured for the manager to lead the way. Visibly sagging in relief, the man did just that, leading him out of the little empty meeting room. He could feel Lenalee smiling at the back of his head, and an irate tick started beneath his eye.

* * *

“Aren’t you two idiots supposed to be  _working_ or something?!”

Lavi and Allen, who had already walked by three times probably _just_ to piss Kanda off, finally paused at the dunking challenge as if just realizing it was there. Lavi looked a little sheepish, but there was still a mischievous gleam in his eye.

“Yeah, that, ah...that didn’t go so well,” Allen said for him. “To nobody’s surprise, the machine somehow broke and is out of commission for the time being. No idea what happened, though.”

From his elevated seat hovering precariously over the tank of filthy “water,” Kanda raised a skeptical eyebrow. Somehow he doubted it was mere coincidence or some sort of fluke that had resulted in the strength challenge breaking. The chagrinned look on Lavi’s face wasn’t really in support of any claim to innocence, as apparent as it was even to Kanda.

“How’s the weather up there, Yuu?” Lavi said, changing the subject abruptly. A vein began pulsing in Kanda’s temple.

“Just peachy,” he growled. “And quit calling me by that name.”

“Guys, what are you doing over here?”

Great. Now the entire squad was here to bother Kanda. At least Lenalee might keep the other two under control before he had to gut them.

“Something, uh, went wrong with the strength challenge machine,” said Lavi blithely. “It ain’t workin’ right, so I put the hammer away, shut it down, and now me and Allen are just having a nice, pleasant conversation with--”

Kanda cut him off with a colorful description of where, exactly, he could put that aforementioned hammer that made several passersby pass by a little faster, shooting furtive looks over their shoulders.

“Now, now, Kanda,” Allen chastised, voice poisonously sweet. “That’s no way to talk to customers at your stand now, is it?”

That vein in Kanda’s temple jumped incredibly.

“Allen, I swear if you--”

“Four dollars, right?” the young man said, not to Kanda but to the man by the board.

The man nodded, and Allen dug his wallet out of his pocket, extracting four wrinkled one-dollar-bills and handing them over. However, when the man tried to hand him the three balls he’d just paid for, he only took one and waved the others away.

“Al, maybe this ain’t such a good idea…” Lavi warned, casting a leery gaze at Kanda’s glower of death.

“Oh, come on, it’s just a little water,” Allen said, waving away his concerns.

“Beansprout, don’t you fucking--”

“Allen…” Lenalee sighed. “Come on, you really shouldn’t tease him like that.”

“Who’s teasing?” Allen said airily. “I’m just playing the game.”

“Beansprout don’t you dare if you throw that I swear I will slice you to ribbons you will never see the light of day again NO DON’T YOU DARE ALLEN I WILL MURDER Y--”

The rest of Kanda’s tirade was cut off as, with the sound of gunfire, Allen’s projectile slammed into the target with enough force to make the entire board quake, and Kanda’s chair tipped him into the tank below. Lavi and Allen both exploded into raucous laughter as Kanda flailed in the water, but Lenalee just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. The man in charge of the transactions was just staring in amazement between Allen and the board.

“Nobody...Nobody’s been able to do that all day!” he said incredulously. “What kind of robot arm are you packing, kid?”

Allen blinked, then grinned and held up both his hands.

“Sorry, no robot arms here,” he said. “Never felt like practicing alchemy, so…”

The man stared at him blankly and he shrugged, turning back to look at Kanda, who was...still flailing?

“Um…” he said awkwardly.

“He doesn’t know how to swim,” Lenalee sighed.

“But...he can just...stand up…” he said in confusion. “It’s not that deep…”

“YUU!!” Lavi bellowed. “STAND UP ALREADY!!”

Just like that, Kanda somehow managed to get his feet under him and flung his head above the surface of the water, murder in his eyes. Lavi cast Allen a look of apology, clearly thinking belatedly that he should’ve given Allen a bit more of a headstart, because climbing out of that tank was not going to take Kanda very long, and Allen was not going to make it far before he was caught and filleted like a salmon.

However, before Kanda could fly at Allen with the full intent of slaughtering him and possibly draining his blood into that god forsaken tank, Lenalee stepped in between them with her arms folded. The look on her face caused Kanda to hesitate, and then grumpily pull himself out of the tank via the ladder, dropping like a water-logged cat onto the grass and shoving his hands in his pockets without making further eye contact with anybody. Lavi’s shoulders slumped in relief, the hand that had been clutching his chest falling slack to his side, and Allen looked at Lenalee, wary of being reprimanded, but she just shook her head in bemusement.

“You two have the weirdest ways of showing affection,” she noted, smiling at their indignant splutters.

“Uh...Yuu...dontcha have to get back up there?” wondered Lavi, jerking his thumb at the platform, which had righted itself promptly upon unseating Kanda.

“If you think I’m getting _back_ up there,” he growled, eyes flicking to the man by the board to ensure he knew what Kanda was saying. “You’re even dumber than you look.”

Lavi held his hands up in surrender, still smiling awkwardly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dgmot4week prompt 4  
> Comfort|Terror

Kanda couldn’t believe his luck. How the hell he had managed not only to get removed within an hour from the fucking _haunted house_ , where you were _supposed_ _to scare people_ , but he had on top of that been roped into taking over Lenalee’s kissing booth, was beyond his comprehension. Of course nobody was coming anywhere near him, what with the sour look on his face and the menacing aura he was wearing like a second skin. If Lenalee had expected the booth to be successful in his care, she couldn’t have been more wrong. People might pay _not_ to kiss him, but that was the only way he’d be getting anybody’s money.

He sighed and leaned his elbows on the table, setting his chin on his linked fingers. He hadn't even had to do anything in the haunted house; just walk around and wait for people to see him. He hadn't even had to moderate his damn appearance or behavior! The more pissed his expression, the more people took off screaming, and the one time he'd drawn his sword on some teenager, he thought the kid about wet himself in terror. That job was damn perfect for him, since it  _required_ people to run away pale as ghosts, but oh no, even that couldn't possibly last very long.

“Eh? Kanda?”

Swearing inwardly, Kanda sank farther in his seat, praying to every god he didn’t believe in to just let him die right then and there because no, no, he was not going to deal with Allen here, not now. And yet there was the beansprout, strolling up to the booth with the most bemused look on his face. Face burning, Kanda pretended not to notice him. Usually this was easy, since he would just look right over that mop of white hair, but sitting down, he had no such free pass.

“What are you doing at Lena’s kissing booth?” Allen wondered, obviously amused as he set his elbows on the table.

Kanda ignored him, studying the amazingly horrendous tattoos covering the face of a middle-aged man leaning against one of the exhibitor buildings. Not one to take the silent treatment lying down, Allen waved his hand in front of Kanda’s face agitatedly.

“Hello?” he said loudly. “Earth to Kanda!”

“Would you shut up?” Kanda snapped, whipping around to glare at the sprout and realizing too late that that was what he’d been after. Scowling, he slumped back in his chair.

“Well?” Allen prompted. “How did you get kicked out of the haunted house?”

“Thanks to _someone_ , I was soaking wet in there,” he growled pointedly. Allen blinked and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. “So I was dripping and leaving puddles everywhere. Someone slipped and threatened to file a complaint. This right here is all your fault.”

Allen raised an eyebrow.

“Well I didn’t have anything to do with you getting stuck here,” he said. “How the hell did you end up at the kissing booth? You’d probably rather be doing the pony rides.”

Kanda snorted.

“Anything would be better than volunteering to kiss disgusting strangers _missing_ more teeth than they _have_ for five bucks,” he grumbled. “But it’s not like Lenalee exactly gave me a choice. She just shoved me into the chair and told me not to leave under penalty of death-by-Komui if I left before she came back.”

He and Allen both shuddered at the thought. When they recovered from the traumatizing speculation, Allen slipped his hand into his back pocket and retrieving his wallet.

"I've got something that might cheer you up," Allen said, unfolding his wallet.

Kanda watched leerily.

"What are you doing, beansprout?"

“Well, we shouldn’t let the booth go to _waste_ ,” he said, pulling out a crumpled five dollar bill.

Before Kanda could fully register what Allen meant, something hot and a little rough was being pressed against his lips. It was only there for a moment, and then Allen pulled back, grinning slyly at the shocked look on Kanda’s face as he tossed the five onto the table.

“What’s that look for?” Allen teased. “It’s not like that’s a first.”

With that, he turned on his heel and strode away, Kanda sputtering incoherently after him, trying to communicate his disbelief that Allen would do that in public, and in broad daylight no less. Face hot, Kanda finally clamped his jaw shut on more useless noises and shoved the five into the cash box beneath his chair.

* * *

“Lena told me she got you to man the booth, but I didn’t believe her!” Lavi crowed in amusement at Kanda, sitting with his arms crossed and a pensive look on his face.

“Me neither,” Kanda grumbled under his breath.

“So, have you got anyone cute yet?” Lavi wondered, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Immediately Kanda thought of Allen, then scowled and refused to answer.

“Guess you wouldn’t,” Lavi acknowledged. “With an expression like that, I might not even wanna kiss ya. Ya gotta at least try t’ look more friendly.”

“Why would I want to do that?” Kanda said wearily.

He just wanted to go home, have something to eat, and then go to sleep. He was well and truly exhausted, both of the people and of his activities, and he wanted it to be over. Having his stupid rabbit bothering him was just enforcing that need.

“C’mon, you can’t really tell me you wouldn’t want a kiss from a pretty stranger?” Lavi teased.

Kanda raised a thin eyebrow at him, and the redhead bowed his head.

“Okay, not your number one priority, obviously,” he noted. “Still, don’t ya think ya owe it to Lena to at least try? Her brother’s been killin’ any business she woulda got.”

“What do I care what the booth makes?” Kanda wondered. “The money doesn’t actually go to us.”

“Actually, the manager guy is letting us keep whatever the booth earns,” Lavi said. “Since it’s not officially part of the fair, they aren’t actually taking a percentage of the earnings.”

“Still don’t care.”

Lavi sighed.

“You’re no fun,” he whined, sticking his tongue out.

“Better put that back in your mouth before I decide to cut it off,” Kanda said coolly. Lavi immediately sucked his tongue back in.

“Eh, I love ya anyway,” he said with a smirk, and leaned in for a quick peck on the lips before scurrying away, preemptively avoiding any possible attacks.

Kanda stared after him, then glanced down to see five poorly folded one dollar bills. Rolling his eyes, he tossed them into the cash box.

* * *

“I half expected you to ditch within an hour!”

Kanda glowered balefully at Lenalee. Night had fallen, and he was just beginning to think that Lenalee planned to leave him there forever when she’d popped up out of the dark, smiling that wide, cheerful smile of hers.

“Tempting,” he muttered.

And he probably would have done so, if not for the three people keeping him effectively boxed in. Allen and Lavi seemed to turn up every time he was getting ready to slip away, and _Komui_ , oh god, Komui’s look of death whenever he sensed that Kanda was about to abandon his little sister’s stand was enough to make anybody waver. He was one of the few men Kanda wanted nothing to do with for health reasons other than rage-heightened blood pressure.

She smiled at that, likely guessing his train of thought.

“Well thanks for watching it for me,” she said happily. “How’d you do?”

He shrugged noncommittally and tossed the cash box onto the table. Lenalee opened it, and her eyes widened in surprise. Kanda suppressed a grimace.

“You actually got someone?” she said in amazement, looking at the twenty dollars in ones and fives.

“I don’t think they really counted,” he said sourly.

Allen and Lavi both had donated again, after their initial fun, at the most opportune time for attention. When a familiar group of giggling girls walked by, slowing down considerably, Allen appeared out of nowhere with another five dollars and immediately shot down their hopes. Kanda wasn’t about to complain, even if Allen’s method drew quite a bit of extra attention. Anything to keep those girls off of him. The second time Lavi had come by, it was when some girl was trying to give Kanda her phone number, and he had leapt in like he thought he was the cavalry and his five dollar bill was the flag of his people, smacking it on the table and making quite a show of kissing Kanda in front of the would-be flirt.

Lenalee laughed.

“I think they’re more protective over you than they are me,” she confided.

Kanda snorted, unamused.

“More likely they didn’t want me to kill any fair-goers,” he said coldly.

“That’s true,” she acknowledged.

There was a look on her face Kanda wasn’t sure he liked. It was contemplative, almost mischievous, and it was making him uneasy because that was not often a look that Lenalee wore. She stuck her hands into her jacket pockets, rummaging for something for a moment before extracting a small leather wallet. Kanda’s shoulders slumped in defeat. He could probably get away if he really wanted to, but not without a fight, and Lenalee was absolutely a force to be reckoned with, especially since he didn’t really want to hurt _her_.

“Kind of counterproductive, isn’t it?” Kanda sighed as she pulled a two dollar bill and three ones out. “You’re getting that money right back, so what’s the point?”

“It’s more fun this way,” she laughed, setting the money on the table and leaning over.

Kanda sighed, then leaned in to meet her for a quick, chaste kiss.

In the next instant, Kanda had disappeared as, with a sound like demons shrieking--which wasn’t too far off--Komui Lee seemed to leap out of the ground with murder in his eyes and a very large, very sharp tool in his hands.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 5: Half Asleep|Fights

****

Lenalee spent most of the drive home worrying about Kanda, who had gone home the instant he was free from the kissing booth. He’d had a long day, and he wasn’t in high spirits even at the best of times. Hopefully he’d at least refrain from demolishing the house to let out some of the pent-up frustration in his system.

“Is everything okay, Lenalee?” Allen wondered from the backseat. She looked around at him, smiling slightly.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” she promised. “I’m just a little concerned for Kanda.”

“Eh, Yuu’s alright,” Lavi said dismissively, waving a hand that should have been on the steering wheel. “He’s a big boy, he can handle a little stress now and then.”

“Okay, I’ll rephrase,” she said. “I’m a little concerned for the house that Kanda is currently alone in. His methods for handling stress tend to not be great for indoor spaces.”

A moment of silence followed her words. Lavi sped up.

* * *

It was honestly incredible, the way that Allen could function almost perfectly when he was damn near asleep on his feet. Lavi had been speeding like a bat of hell to get home, and yet Allen had somehow found the time to nod off into such a deep slumber that Lenalee nearly had to drag him out of the car in the hopes that the sudden rush of cold night air would be able to startle him into some form of awareness. While Lavi had his doubts about how conscious Allen really was, he couldn’t deny that he was walking around and--sort of--talking. If mumbling incoherently counted as talking, anyway.

“Hopefully he’s asleep,” Lenalee sighed, most likely referring to Kanda. She was looking around at the deserted living room, seeming incredibly relieved that everything seemed to be intact.

“I just hope he didn’t break his window again,” Lavi grumbled, prodding Allen toward the hallway. The boy shuffled in the direction provided. “That was not a cheap fix.”

“No…” Lenalee sighed.

Movement outside caught her attention from the corner of her eye, and she looked around, expecting to see a cat peering in through the window. It was pretty common to get a feline visitor or two, and though he swore up and down that he had nothing to do with it, the other three were very sure that Allen would surreptitiously put food outside for them. However, this time there was no cat in the backyard. Instead, a tall man was moving flawlessly through sword forms, his long hair tied back in a loose braid.

“Found him,” Lenalee called down the hall, prompting Lavi to stick his head back around the corner.

“Not demolishing the neighborhood or anything, right?” he chuckled, only half joking. Lenalee shook her head.

“He’s practicing his forms,” she said, smiling and gesturing toward the back door.

Lavi came back into the main room, Allen trailing after him like a lost puppy with his eyes only half open.

“We should probably tell him we’re turning in,” Allen mumbled. “So he doesn’t stampede through the house when he comes back in.”

“Oh, better yet,” Lavi smirked, eyes gleaming evilly. “Lock the door. Then he can’t get back in.”

“Perfect,” said Allen serenely.

“You both know there’ll be hell to pay for doing that,” Lenalee warned them. “I’m not helping you when he gets back in.”

“Aw, c’mon Lena, was just a joke,” Lavi said, waving her concern away.

Ignoring him, she went to the door and pulled it open, stepping back out into the cool air. Kanda made no inclination that he heard the door open, or that he noticed the light suddenly pouring over the patchy grass, continuing through his forms with a grace that commonly took strangers by surprise. It wasn’t that his build didn’t seem right for such movements; on the contrary. His body, while certainly powerful, was willowy rather than bulky, with flexible and lean muscle to take the place of brute strength. No, it was more at odds with his personality than his body; his character was hardly graceful even at the best of times.

The others liked watching him go through his forms--even Allen, though he was loathe to admit it--and found watching almost as relaxing as Kanda seemed to find the forms themselves.

“We’re hittin’ the hay, Yuu!” Lavi hollered jovially. Kanda paused.

“Quit calling me that,” he grumbled. Then went straight back to his forms.

“You should turn in soon too, Kanda,” Lenalee added. “Tomorrow’s the last day of the fair, and it’s hard enough on you if you’re well-rested.”

“Tch.”

“Forget the fair, a sleep-deprived Bakanda would burn the whole city down,” quipped Allen.

“What was that, beansprout?”

Lenalee and Lavi made eye contact, then sighed and stepped away from Allen. Nothing for them to do really, except wait out what happened next.

“You heard me, Bakanda,” Allen replied, straightening up a little to glare at him. “You’re a loose canon even in a good mood. If you have those.”

Kanda turned around to face Allen, eyes glinting.

“Oi, Lena,” Lavi hissed, gesturing to a couple lawn chairs sitting nearby. “Got any kettlecorn left?”

Grinning, Lenalee began rummaging through her purse for the half-empty bag she’d stuffed in there earlier, producing in the meantime an almost full bag of pale blue cotton candy and tossing it to the redhead. They each claimed a chair, and she finally procured the caramel kettle corn from the deepest recesses of her purse. Nothing like snacks and a show right before bed.

“Don’t break the fence, alright?” she hollered. “And no hits below the waist!”

“They’re not listenin’,” Lavi said with a grin, taking a huge chunk of cotton candy and forcing it into his mouth.

“They had better be,” Lenalee said, eyes narrowing. “Hey! Do you two hear me?!”

Allen and Kanda, who were already flying at each other, paused mid-air to look over at Lenalee. She rolled her eyes.

“You know the rules,” she said, waving a hand. “Go for it.”

With Allen still not truly awake, it was a short fight.

* * *

Kanda trudged to the door with his sword on his hip and Allen flung across one shoulder like an oddly shaped sack of flour, sparing Lenalee and Lavi a cursory look and a grumbled “Night” before disappearing inside. Lenalee and Lavi looked at each other, considering placing bets on where they would find Allen once Kanda went to bed.

“I’ll check the front lawn if you check the garbage,” Lavi snorted.

Lenalee laughed and stood up, brushing off her jeans and heading inside. It sounded like Kanda had gone straight back to the rooms, which would certainly make her night easier, but she wasn’t too hopeful. He was quick, and it wouldn’t have taken him long to chuck their friend out front before retiring. Still, she figured there was no harm in checking the back of the house first, so she padded on bare feet--she left her filthy boots by the front door--to Allen’s room, carefully poking the door open and peering inside. There was a vaguely human-shaped lump on the bed, and Lenalee withdrew with a smile. Whatever they said, Kanda had a tendency to be nicer, especially to Allen, if he was tired.

“You’re joking,” Lavi hissed, seeing her standing outside Allen’s room. “He didn’t.”

Lenalee smiled brightly and shrugged her slender shoulders, going to her room and shutting the door softly behind her. As long as Lavi didn’t bother Kanda about taking Allen to bed, the night might yet be peaceful.

“Oi, Yuu!”

Her shoulders slumped. And yet, it might not.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 6: Hand brushes|Uncalled for

Allen had been nothing short of relieved when they all arrived at the fair and the manager informed him that he need not “clown it up” today. Finally, a day at the fair without sweating off ten pounds under heavy clothes and a ridiculous wig. Instead, he was helping Lavi at the face-painting booth, drawing simple designs with henna on people’s hands, shoulders, and ankles. As a general rule, Allen was hardly what anybody would call talented when it came to art, but henna gave him a sort of stylistic get-out-of-jail-free card. He could pull off abstract designs, which seemed to go over very well with his customers.

“Hey, not bad, Al,” Lavi commented, glancing over at the whimsical pattern Allen had drawn around the wrist of a older lady. It wrapped in spirals around her arm, giving the impression of a delicate band.

Allen smiled and, after instructing the woman to leave the paste on for at least five hours, but preferably overnight, tucked his ten dollars into the cash box under his chair.

“You may have a future in art yet,” the redhead grinned. With a final flick of his wrist, he finished up the whiskers on the young girl sitting in front of him and shooed her off, laughing as she meowed her way to her father.

“Are there any stalls selling those animal ear headbands?” Lavi wondered. “She could do with some cat ears. It’d be cute.”

Allen shrugged and leaned back, stretching his arms over his head. Lavi’s eyes followed the movement.

“You didn’t wrap your arm today,” he noted.

Allen blinked, glancing automatically at his left hand even though obviously he already was aware that it was bare.

“Yeah,” he acknowledged, flexing the discolored fingers. “I needed to let it breathe a little. Wrapping it all weekend with the weather like it is just made it gross and damp.”

“Huh? I thought it couldn’t sweat anymore?” Lavi said, startled.

Allen’s arm had already been burned when he met the others, but after they got to know him better, he told them what had happened. He’d gotten his arm burned pretty badly in a car crash when he was ten, and it had already been weak since birth--he never knew why, but he’d had to go through a lot of physical therapy to make it work properly--and it showed it. The skin was discolored and patchy, a dark red in some places and a gray-ish pink in others, not to mentioned the scars and shiny spots that would never heal. Apparently the burn from the car wreck had been severe enough that it permanently damaged his sweat glands. Meaning totally destroyed them. That was the same crash that had burned the left side of his face and killed his father. Apparently the shock from the incident was also what had made his hair turn white.

“No, but some moisture always gets in,” Allen responded with a shrug. “Breeding ground for bacteria. Not good. So I figured it needed some air.”

“Okay, gross,” Lavi snorted. “That makes sense, though.”

Allen smiled slightly and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and heaving a contented sigh.

“Do you think Kanda went home yet?” Lavi wondered. Allen shrugged.

“They told him he could leave when he was done mucking out the stables,” he said. “Can’t think of a reason for him to stick around, can you?”

“Nah,” Lavi agreed. “Still, he could’ve at least said goodbye before he ditched us in the heat.”

“We are talking about Kanda, right?” Allen checked, cracking one eye open to look at Lavi. The redhead smirked and said nothing.

“Um, can I get a henna tattoo?”

Allen looked around. A young woman was standing in front of him shyly with a young man at her shoulder. Greeting her with a smile, Allen straightened up and gestured for her to take a seat.

“Is there anything in particular you’d like?” he asked, hoping she said no.

“Well...I’d like the Kanji symbol for creativity,” she said quietly. Allen’s shoulders relaxed slightly. Kanji he could manage.

“On your hand?” he checked. That was the best place for an active symbol like that. She nodded. “Alright, then I’ll just have you set it on the table while I get the paste ready, alright?”

She did as he asked, and Allen reached to the ground for the bowl, but he didn’t quite get to it when--

“What the fuck!?”

He stiffened and whipped around, worrying that something had happened, but everything seemed to be just as it was. Except for the man standing by his customer. He was staring at Allen with something akin to disgust, his lip curled and his eyes narrowed. Taken aback, Allen didn’t know what to say or do besides look at the man questioningly. The girl did the same, looking over her shoulder in confusion.

“There a problem?” Lavi asked curiously.

“Dude, what the fuck is up with your hand?”

Allen glanced down and pressed his lips together. He was talking about his left hand, of course.

“Ah, that’s--”

“You got some kind of disease?” the man interrupted. “You a leper or something?”

“Kevin!” the girl exclaimed, aghast. “That’s--”

“It’d be in your best interest to shut up,” Lavi said, voice suddenly hard. The man didn’t seem to catch the warning in his tone.

“Dude, your friend’s been doin’ henna tattoos with _that_?!” Kevin demanded, gesticulating wildly at Allen’s discolored limb. “He’s gonna infect the whole town like that, that’s just--”

“What’s going on here?”

Everyone looked around at the speaker. Lenalee stood with Kanda at her shoulder, and though she was wearing a small smile, it was superficial and did not touch her eyes. Clearly she’d already heard enough. Behind her, Kanda seemed to be in an even more foul mood than normal.

“It’s noth--” Allen started hastily, wanting to diffuse the situation quickly, but the man interrupted him.

“This guy’s got that freaky ass arm and he’s been touching probably tons of people all day,” he accused. “He’s probably got some kind of disease, and he’s just passin’ it on to whoever wants a stupid Hannah thing.”

“Henna,” his companion corrected automatically. She looked down at the ground when he turned to glare at her.

“Is that right?” Kanda said, voice cold.

“Yeah! Look at his arm and tell me there’s not something wrong with it!”

“Assuming he has some sort of illness because of his appearance is a bit uncalled for, don’t you think?” Lenalee said. Her tone was icy. The man blinked.

Allen looked on helplessly, wanting to say something but unsure of what.

“Well, then, what made his arm look like that?” the man sputtered. He was starting to lose steam, realizing that he was outnumbered, outgunned, and making a bigger ass of himself by the second.

“Kevin, you shouldn’t--”

“I was born with it paralyzed. I think the umbilical cord was partially wrapped around it,” Allen said simply. “A few years ago it got burned pretty bad in a car accident.”

Kevin blinked, then straightened up and grabbed his companion’s shoulder, pulling her to her feet.

“C’mon Jenny, let’s go,” he said curtly, steering her toward the path.

“Hold up,” Lavi said, arm lashing out to catch his elbow. “I think your friend here wanted a henna tattoo, didn’t she?”

Kevin clicked his tongue. “She’s fine.”

“Why don’t you ask her what she wants?” the redhead suggested before turning a much kinder expression to Jenny. “If you still want one, he’ll do it for ya. It’s on me, too.”

The girl gave a hesitant smile, then glanced up at Kevin, who was scowling darkly.

“Thank you,” she said, quickly looking back at Lavi. “But, ah, it’s alright.”

“See?” Kevin said sourly. “She’s fine.”

Still blocking the entrance, a vein started to pulse in Lenalee’s temple, but she stepped out of the way when the two moved to leave. Kanda caught Kevin’s eye as he passed, however, and whatever the man saw cause the blood to drain from his face. Allen almost smirked; many a stranger had fallen victim to Kanda’s murder-glare, strangers both better and smarter than their new friend Kevin.

Jenny left with a special design, courtesy of Kanda rather than Allen, intended to promote courage and independence, though he didn’t tell her that in front of Kevin. The man followed her out with a few parting words to Allen, who didn’t notice that despite his obvious lack of concern for the man’s rudeness, the other three were quite prepared to send him packing. Kanda in particular was projecting himself as particularly menacing, giving off a vibe that stated quite plainly to all but Allen that only he was allowed to raze the Beansprout.

“Well…” Allen said once Kevin and Jenny were out of sight. “That was...interesting.”

Lenalee sighed heavily. “Sometimes I actually forget that people like him exist.”

Lavi rolled his eyes. “You’re too trusting,” he snorted.

“Really though, that kind of reaction was so uncalled for,” Lenalee grumbled, flexing her fingers.

“Whatever,” said Kanda. “He’s gone now.”

“Hey, this is the last day of the fair, right?” Lavi said, suddenly sitting up straight. “We should all take a lunch break and walk around a bit. Y’know, enjoy it together.”

On cue, Allen’s stomach grumbled.

“Forget it,” Kanda said. “I’m going home.”

“No way, Yuu, you gotta hang out with us a little,” Lavi whined. A tick started beneath Kanda’s eye, but Lavi persisted.

All in all, it may not have been the most joyful expedition, but the other three finally convinced Kanda to join them, and together they wandered around the fair for a couple hours, snacking on curly fries and “japanese” food truck dishes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompt 7: Home|Separate

Kanda was the first to finish up at the fair on Sunday. After dealing with the idiot harassing Allen and then being dragged around the fair for two hours by Lavi, he finally managed to get the car keys from Lenalee and escape that hellhole. How anybody found those kind of events fun was beyond him, but there were a great many strange and stupid people in the world and he didn’t really care to wonder about the thought processes each and every one of them.

At any rate, he was thanking his lucky stars the entire way home, looking forward to some soba and then a few hours of peace and quiet before the others came home to ruin it. He allowed himself to relax behind the steering wheel a little bit at the prospect. Right now not even the shitty end-of-lunch rush could tick him off too much.

He reached down to turn the radio off, something he probably should’ve done before he even left the parking lot, because there was never anything worth listening to on any local stations. Lavi had turned the radio on when the two of them were heading to the fair that morning, and no amount of bitching, threatening, or straight-up reaching down to turn it off on Kanda’s part would get him to keep the damn thing off. Knowing that their schedules would be all over the place today, the four had driven both of their vehicles to the fair so that whenever the first person was off, they wouldn’t have to wait for everyone else before they left or else leave them to fend for themselves. Most likely the others only decided that because they suspected that Kanda would be the first one off and none of them had any illusions about him waiting for them.

Heaving a long sigh, Kanda pulled into the driveway of the house, parked, and climbed out keys in hand, ready to sleep for a couple of years. Finding the house key on his key ring, he trudged to the front door and let himself in with the air of a man who planned to never leave his home again. He slammed the door behind him and went immediately to the back of the house.

He smelled like the horse stables he’d been cleaning and desperately needed to shower it off.

* * *

“You have a ride home?”

Lavi nodded, smiling lazily and folding his arms behind his head. Lenalee and Allen glanced at each other curiously. They had been a little confused at the speed with which Lavi had started packing up his things when his shift was over, since they both still had things to do and he wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while, but when he told them he’d gotten his own ride, they’d only become more confused. None of them knew a huge range of people to begin with, and from their small group of acquaintances, there were even fewer they would call friends, and from those friends, there weren’t many who would go out of their way to pick them up if they asked.

“Who is it?” Allen wondered.

“My boss from the library turned up,” Lavi replied. “Said if I didn’t mind stopping by there first he’d be happy to give me a ride.”

“Bookman?” Lenalee said in surprise. “What’s he doing here?”

Lavi shrugged.

“Like I know what goes on in that old panda’s head,” he snorted.

“Doesn’t he have an actual name?” Allen wondered. “Why don’t you ever use it?”

Lavi blinked.

“Huh. Never asked ‘im,” he said in realization. “I mean, everyone calls him Bookman, and he seems alright with it, so…”

Lenalee and Allen both sighed.

“You don’t know your own boss’s name?” Allen said in disbelief.

“Nah. Like I said, he seems fine with Bookman, so why complicate matters?” he said as if it made perfect sense.

Allen and Lenalee gave up, and he hoisted his bags onto his shoulders and was off with a final goodbye and a cheery wave, marching along down the gravel path towards the exit at a decent clip. If there was one thing he didn’t want to do, it was keep Bookman waiting. The man was brilliant and dedicated, not to mention passionate about his job, but patient he was not. He had quite a quick temper, particularly with Lavi, though that might just be because Lavi knew exactly what buttons to press to set him off and would punch them all rapid-fire at the same time.

Lavi smirked to himself, hoisting one of his bags a little higher on his shoulder as he walked. Bookman really was a sucker for knowledge. Despite him working at the library, he spent most of his time reading the books rather than organizing them--that was why he’d hired Lavi--and as short as he was, it was very difficult to find him among the tall and dusty shelves. He liked that about the old man, however, to be perfectly honest. It was rare for him to see anybody so invested in their hobbies anymore, particularly older folks, but that man treated learning like a life-or-death situation.

“There you are!”

Lavi flinched reflexively and looked around. There was the panda, all four feet of him, looking up at him sourly from beside the gate.

“Keeping an old man waiting like this,” he grumbled to himself. “Ungrateful brat.”

“Good to see you too, gramps,” Lavi chuckled. “Lead the way, if you can.”

He really wasn’t sure how that tiny man could manage to kick him upside the head, but he managed it quickly and powerfully.

* * *

Allen was free to go whenever his replacement turned up for the next shift. For most of the afternoon he’d been checking people’s tickets at the doors to the rodeo and selling spares to the ones that didn’t have any yet, with very little trouble. He’d gotten a couple of tickets with phone numbers on them, which was always good for a laugh, and he’d caught a couple of kids trying to sneak past him, and he shooed them away appropriately, but before he went back to his station, they might have heard him talking to himself about a back entrance that wasn’t being watched at the moment.

Idly he hoped the people that had handed him those tickets weren’t going to be waiting for his call. He’d feel a little bad if he knew they were sitting on pins and needles by their phones only for it to not ring. With a sigh and a shrug he put it from his mind. Worrying about strangers handing out their phone numbers wasn’t going to do much for him one way or the other, and it wasn’t going to magically make them understand that that probably wasn’t the best way to pick up people in public.

“Hey, you’re Allen, right?”

Allen looked around and smiled in relief. A thin young man was standing a short ways away, his disaster of curly hair tied back into a poofy would-be ponytail and his glasses taking up half his face and giving him the impression of having incredibly large eyes. He looked a little out of place in his khakis and blue polo shirt, but Allen didn’t comment.

“Yeah, I am,” he said, standing up and holding out his right hand. “You must be Johnny.”

“That’s me!” the boy said cheerfully, reaching out to shake his hand in a surprisingly strong grip. “I’ll be taking over now, I guess.”

“Good luck,” Allen grinned, glancing at the doors. “It’s all pretty easy; just watch out for kids trying to sneak in. I already caught a couple earlier.”

“Will do,” Johnny said, smiling widely and taking his seat. “So I just take their tickets and stamp their hands, right?”

“Yep,” Allen confirmed. “There’s some spares in the cash box, too. Seven bucks each for anyone that wants to buy.”

“Alrighty,” his replacement said, stretching his arms over his head and flexing his fingers. Allen smiled. Johnny was certainly an earnest one.

“I’ll be off then,” Allen said, waving a hand as he turned to go.

“Bye!”

“See ya.”

Tucking his hands back into his pockets, Allen strolled down the stairs in front of the building, wondering if he should go say hi to Lenalee. She’d given up on the kissing booth and was now patrolling the craft buildings for any troublemakers. He decided against the idea. She hadn’t had much time to herself this weekend, and he figured she might want a break from her roommate. That decided, he figured he would just take another gander around the fair, see what there was to see, and then hit some food stands, sit back, and relax.

* * *

“I figured you would be here,” Lenalee said, leaning her elbow on Allen’s shoulder and distracting him from a plate of yakisoba.

“Lenalee, you’re done?” he said, looking up at her. She laughed.

“Yeah, just finished closing up the building. You might want to use that napkin,” she said, pointing at her own face. “You’ve got a little something...kinda everywhere, actually. Jeez, you’d think you were starving.”

“I was!” Allen said at once, but did as she suggested and wiped a fair amount of sauce off his face in chagrin.

She smiled gently and ruffled his hair.

“Well, whenever you’ve had your fill, we can head home,” she told him, sitting on the bench at his side. “Lavi and Kanda are probably wondering when we’ll be back.”

“You’re joking, right?” Allen snorted, slurping up another mouthful of noodles. “There’s no way Lavi’s back. He said they were stopping by the library first, right?”

“...Yeah…”

“They’re gonna be there til tomorrow morning,” Allen said, seeming quite certain in his prediction.

“Well...You’re probably right that he’s not home yet,” Lenalee allowed. “But even Lavi’s still got a ceiling on his energy, and this weekend definitely wore him out. I’m sure he’ll be back before tomorrow.”

Allen shrugged, clearly not buying into it, and finished his food with one last, massive mouthful. Sighing contentedly, he picked up his plate and rose to his feet, Lenalee following.

“Home, then?” he said as he tossed the paper plate away.

“Mmhmm,” Lenalee said, falling into step with him as they walked for the parking lot through the remnants of the fair

* * *

Kanda was dozing off on the couch in front of the evening news when the garage door closing jarred him back into alertness. He looked around as footsteps sounded in the entryway and watched as Allen and Lenalee both came in, smiling tiredly.

“No rabbit?” he said, referring of course to Lavi.

“No, he and Bookman stopped by the library,” Lenalee said. “We don’t really know when he’ll be home.”

Kanda snorted and turned back to the news.

“When the last book’s been read, probably,” he said drily.

“That’s what I said,” Allen agreed.

“Have you eaten already?” Lenalee asked Kanda.

“Yeah.”

Allen and Lenalee both shuffled to the couch, flinging themselves down on either side of Kanda as if their bodies were suddenly too heavy for their legs to continue to support them. Lenalee began to take her hair ties out upon seeing that Kanda had done the same, and Allen reached for the remote to see what else was on TV, since the news was nearly over. For once, Kanda didn’t complain, preferring to just lean back into the couch and continue thanking his lucky stars that the fair was finally over with.

He felt something tug at his hair and looked around, finding Allen holding a tiny piece of lint between his thumb and forefinger. Quite unperturbed by Kanda’s narrowed eyes, he flicked the piece of lint away and started combing his fingers through what he could of Kanda’s hair, carefully pulling out tangles where he met them. On Kanda’s other side, Lenalee started to do the same thing, and he rolled his eyes and looked back to the TV, noticing that Allen had put on some movie about a bunch of kids and some kind of candy factory. The feeling of them combing through his hair was nice, relaxing even, especially since he had a hard time doing it by himself because of the length.

Just then--

“ _Honeeeyyys, I’m hooo~oooome_!!”

The three simultaneously rolled their eyes, Allen and Lenalee pausing in their ministrations so they could all look around at the redhead that came bouncing into view.

“Oooh, whatcha watchin’?” he asked, eyes going straight to the television.

“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” Allen said.

“The original?” Lavi checked. Allen nodded. “Nice! Scoot over.”

They did, moving so that Allen was snug between one arm of the couch and Kanda, Kanda was sandwiched between he and Lenalee, and Lavi squeezed himself in on Lenalee’s other side. Once their cozy seating was established, Lenalee and Allen went back to grooming Kanda like a pair of chimpanzees, and out of the corner of his eye the japanese man caught Lavi doing the same for Lenalee’s long hair.

“Well, that was a crazy weekend,” Lavi commented after a few minutes. “Anybody up for doin’ it again next time?”

“Yeah, I had fun.”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

“Hell no.”


End file.
